223 Light Primer Strike Puzzle

[mb571]

If you anneal, only the neck should be annealed. If the shoulder is annealed, and softened more than it should, the firing pin will drive the case forward. IOW the case will move forward, the shoulder will be driven back because this will take less force to move the shoulder than dent the primer.

Personally, at the price of 223 brass, I wouldn't anneal. Also because of the short neck, too easy to soften the shoulder. may be wise to pitch that brass.

Nitro

Annealing has everything to do with the problem. Earlier in the post I mentioned I have loaded 1500 rounds for this gun and this was the first failures. This makes sense in that I believe the heating got away from me a bit and the shoulder got softened. I do have the Hornady gauges now to measure. It wasn't making the brass last longer that had me annealing, it was looking for consistent neck tension. Even after neck sizing alone, sometimes you can feel a diff amount of pressure to seat a projectile.